Colorado Employment Situation in May 2019

Barbara Crimond | Jun 21, 2019 | Comments 0

Employers in Colorado added 2,200 nonfarm payroll jobs from April to May for a total of 2,766,500 jobs, according to the survey of business establishments. Private sector payroll jobs increased 900 and government increased 1,300. April estimates were revised down to 2,764,300, and the over the month change from March to April was an increase of 8,600 rather than the originally estimated increase of 9,500.

According to the survey of households, the unemployment rate decreased one-tenth of a percentage point from April to May to 3.2 percent. The number of people actively participating in the labor force decreased 300 over the month to 3,138,400 and the number of people reporting themselves as employed increased 5,700 to 3,039,400. The increase in total employment combined with the decrease in labor force caused the number of unemployed to decrease 6,100 and the unemployment rate to decline to 3.2 percent. Due to rounding, the unemployment rate for April was revised down from 3.4 percent to 3.3 percent. The national unemployment rate was unchanged in May at 3.6 percent.

Over the year, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased from 33.9 to 33.2 hours and average hourly earnings increased from $28.51 to $30.14.

The largest over the month private sector job gain was in professional and business services. The largest over the month decline was in other services.

Over the year, nonfarm payroll jobs increased 45,900, with an increase of 42,500 in the private sector and an increase of 3,400 in government. The largest private sector job gains were in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and educational and health services. Financial activities declined over the year.

Over the year, the unemployment rate is up one-tenth of a percentage point from 3.1 percent. The number of Coloradans participating in the labor force increased 55,700, total employment increased 51,500 and the number of unemployed increased 4,200. The national unemployment rate declined from 3.8 percent in May 2018 to 3.6 percent in May 2019.

These are the unemployment percentages for southeast Colorado counties:

	Labor Force	May 2019 %	Unemployed	April 2019	May 2018 %	Unemployed
Baca	2,288	1.5	34	1.6	1.5	35
Bent	2,037	2.7	54	2.9	2.7	54
Cheyenne	1,152	1.4	16	1.7	1.4	17
Crowley	1,561	4.2	66	4.1	3.7	56
Kiowa	984	1.5	15	1.9	1.6	16
Kit Carson	4,518	1.4	65	1.5	1.7	75
Las Animas	6,755	3.3	226	3.7	3.9	258
Otero	8,665	3.6	311	3.9	4.1	353
Prowers	6,379	2.3	147	2.5	2.6	169